SEOUL, March 8 (Korea Bizwire) – The National Human Rights Commission of Korea said Tuesday that South Korea’s military prisons were failing to protect the rights of inmates, with poor maintenance conditions and other unethical practices. According to the NHRC, the prison cells that its officials investigated had restrooms with no shades or screens to [...]
SEOUL, March 7 (Korea Bizwire) – Nearly one in four prisoners at North Korea’s labor camps die of disease while in confinement, a Seoul-based think tank said in a report released Tuesday. The report by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies said that the fatality rate at North Korea’s political prisons is estimated at close [...]
WASHINGTON, July 7 (Korea Bizwire) – The United States imposed sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over human rights abuses on Wednesday in an unprecedented, highly symbolic measure underscoring Washington’s determination to ramp up pressure on Pyongyang. Ten other top officials as well as five state agencies, including the National Defense Commission, which has [...]
SEOUL, July 5 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korea claimed Tuesday that the country’s industrial production exceeded its target last month as it started the 200-day campaign to push its people into working harder. North Korea’s industrial production, including coal and electric power, increased 1.2 times in the first month that it launched its hard-work drive, [...]
SEOUL, June 28 (Korea Bizwire) – ‘Under the Sun’ is a 2015 Russian documentary film written and directed by Vitaliy Manskiy, which follows the story of a North Korean girl who prepares to celebrate the Day of the Shining Star, the birthday of Kim Jong-il, the late father of current leader Kim Jong-un. The film’s [...]
SEOUL, June 27 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korea has mobilized residents and school children to pick wild greens for soldiers to make up for the country’s food shortage, the U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Monday. A North Korean source told the RFA that the impoverished country has brought in middle and high school students [...]
SUWON, South Korea, June 24 (Korea Bizwire) – “Male examinees should use a ‘urination bag’ at the back of the examination room, and female examinees should also take care of their business at the back of the examination room while a proctor uses an umbrella to set up a screen.” To everyone’s surprise, these were actual [...]
SEOUL, June 14 (Korea Bizwire) – Anti-gay views and even hate crimes against members of the LGBT community have been on the rise recently. The Orlando mass shooting that just occurred two days ago was also a hate crime against the gay community, with 49 casualties and dozens more badly injured, according to BBC News. In [...]
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s unification ministry said Monday that North Korea appears ready to kick off another campaign designed to push its people to work harder starting in June. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said that the “200-day campaign of loyalty” will be launched in a bid to implement the five-year [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) – University students put on a performance in downtown Seoul on April 25, 2016, acting out jailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The performance is part of a three-day campaign arranged by university students across the country to demand that Kim be brought before the International Criminal Court for his [...]